Ready to Eat Meals

The meal ready to eat, or MRE, has evolved over the years. It's also helped make the U.S. military the best-fed fighting force in the world.

If you cooked a meal, stored it in a warehouse, dropped it out of an airplane, dragged it through the desert and ate it three years later, that's called an MRE.

For U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, a nutritious meal is imperative. The Food Science and Technology Dept. at Ohio State University is one of only five facilities in the country commissioned by the army to improve the quality and nutrition of MRE's.

The newest technology is called “pulsed electric field.” Also in its experimental stages is new sealing technology, which is currently made by heat.

Nearly 50 million MRE's have been ordered. If laid side by side, they're enough to crisscross America three times! It's a taste some don't mind.

Other sites commissioned by the military to improve MRE's are Texas A&M, Washington State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Rutgers University.

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